Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to autonomous vehicles, and more particularly to flight paths of autonomous vehicles.
Related Art
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are critical in the collaborative engagement, surveillance and monitoring of enemy territory in today's military conflicts and operations. Increasingly, UAVs are also being used in commercial and civilian applications, as well. UAVs are used by law enforcement agencies to monitor and surveille an area, by farmers to monitor crops for pests or water requirements, by scientists to conduct research or by activists to prevent wildlife poaching or other misuse of natural resources.
Additionally, as UAVs become less expensive their use becomes more economical. Where once a single drone may have been deployed a fleet or swarm of drones may be used. However, as the application of UAVs becomes more widespread and the number of UAVs deployed in those applications increases, collision avoidance becomes increasingly important. UAV collisions can result in financial loss, mission failure and possibly even injury or loss of life.
Collision avoidance is currently approached through some combination of location awareness and intricate flight coordination. Each UAV is outfitted with sensors and communication equipment which aids it in determining the location of nearby UAVs and to take actions to avoid collisions. This additional hardware increases the size and cost of the UAV. Additionally, location sensing and intricate flight coordination becomes increasingly complex as the number of UAVs in an area increase. As systems move toward employing thousands of UAVs, flight coordination becomes less realistic. Finally, UAV choice is limited with current collision avoidance schemes as the UAVs must use similar communication protocols to be able to communicate.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cost-effective way of ensuring the collisionless flight of UAVs which does not require the UAV to include collision avoidance sensors or have knowledge and coordination of the flight paths or positions of other UAVs.